By the Falls – a Longfellow, Minneapolis leather stamping collection

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of original leather stamping studies.

Volume I-D. A September study.

By the Falls – a small collection of original stamps pressed into leather for Greater Longfellow, Minneapolis. The neighborhood runs from the Mississippi River Gorge down to Minnehaha Park, and the designs walk the same ground.

First, we took the neighborhood's public phrase, “Neighborhood By the Falls”, and set the words around the falls themselves – the creek breaks over a limestone ledge and drops in straight, patient lines.

Black-and-white Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall stamp artwork for the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

We put it on luggage tags in pale sea-blue and navy. It looks genuinely beautiful.

The Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall design stamped into luggage tags in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

The Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall design stamped into luggage tags in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

The black tag carries the falls in gold foil.

The Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall design stamped into luggage tags in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

Next, the songbird. Indigo buntings are nesting again in the oak savanna above the river gorge, where the January checklist counts 195 species – so we set one mid-song on a bending grass stem, above the one word the whole place answers to: LONGFELLOW. A songbird for a neighborhood named after a poet.

Black-and-white singing indigo bunting above Longfellow stamp artwork for the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

It went into the corner of the journals – navy for the bird's own indigo, warm tan for the field notes. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

The singing indigo bunting above Longfellow design stamped into journals in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

The singing indigo bunting above Longfellow design stamped into journals in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

Then the bur oak. Savanna oaks grow wide because the meadow leaves them alone, so we gave ours the whole field and set ROOM TO GROW beneath it – a line that fits a housewarming as well as a graduation.

Black-and-white oak tree above Room to Grow stamp artwork for the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

We pressed it into the golden tan catchall tray and onto a toiletry stack of honeyed russet over dark espresso – oak-bark colors. Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

The oak tree above Room to Grow design stamped into catchall trays in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

The oak tree above Room to Grow design stamped into dopp kits in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

And finally, the gorge itself – the river drawn as a white ribbon easing between stepped limestone bluffs, THE GORGE beneath. It rides on keychains in forest green and pale greige like the stone, and goes wherever the keys go.

Black-and-white river between limestone bluffs above The Gorge stamp artwork for the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

Keychains with the gorge stamp look just awesome.

The river between limestone bluffs above The Gorge design stamped into keychains in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

The river between limestone bluffs above The Gorge design stamped into keychains in the By the Falls leather collection of Longfellow, Minneapolis.

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.

P.S.

An alternate Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall stamp render on leather luggage tags from By the Falls in Longfellow, Minneapolis.

An alternate Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall stamp render on leather luggage tags from By the Falls in Longfellow, Minneapolis.

An alternate Neighborhood By the Falls waterfall stamp render on leather luggage tags from By the Falls in Longfellow, Minneapolis.